Brillat-Savarin.   Jean Anthelme     - An important edition illustrated by Bertall.
Physiologie du Gout
PAR BRILLAT SAVARIN, ILLUSTREE Par BERTALL PRECEDE D'UNE NOTICE BIOGRAPHIQUE Par ALPH. KARR.Dessins a part du texte, graves sur acier par Ch. Geoffroy, Gravures sur bois, intercalees dans le texte, par Midderigh. GABRIEL DE GONET, EDITEUR. RUE DES BEAUX-ARTS, 6.
238X160mm. Marbled paste-down and end-paper. 1fep. [1] Frontispiece titled 'Les Sens' (jpeg #3 below). Title page. [1] (1)ii-vii. [2] Engraved portrait of Brillat-Savarin. (1)x Aphorismes. (1)xii-xiv Dialogue. (1)xx-xxiii Preface.[1] (1)2-412. (1)414-416 Table des Mariers. 1fep. [1] Marbled Paste-down and end-paper. With 8 full page, highly amusing steel engraved plates of various culinary scenes, on India paper and many in-text illustrated vignettes. There is minor foxing throughout the text block. Contemporary binding by Barker's of Dercas Terrace, Hammersmith. Quarter brown calf with brown cloth boards and calf tips. Calf edges with gilt lines. Spine with raised bands and all compartments with French style gilt tooling and a red label with gilt lettering. All edges marbled. Overall the binding is solid and in good condition.
- Charles Albert Constant Nicolas Arnoux Limoges Saint-Saens, alias: Bertall, was born 18 December 1820 at Paris and died on 24 March 1882. An illustrator , cartoonist and writer, he is known for being one of the most prolific illustrators of the nineteenth century and one of the pioneers of photography . Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin born on April 1755, Belley, Ain, died 2nd February 1826, Paris. He was a French lawyer and politician, and gained fame as an epicure and gastronome: Grimod and Brillat-Savarin between them were the two writers who effectively founded the whole genre of the gastronomic essay. His famous work, ‘Physiologie du gout’ (The Physiology of Taste) , was published in December 1825, two months before his death. The full title is ‘Physiologie du Goût, ou Méditations de Gastronomie Transcendante; ouvrage théorique, historique et à l'ordre du jour, dédié aux Gastronomes parisiens, par un Professeur, membre de plusieurs sociétés littéraires et savante’. This great classic of Gastronomy is a witty and authoritative compendium on the art of dining that has never been out of print since it was first published. This 1848 copy, illustrated by Bertall is considered a very important version. The philosophy of Epicurus lies behind every page. The body of the work, though often wordy and sometimes aphoristic and axiomatic, has remained extremely important and sought after. It has often been analyzed and quoted through the years since his death. In a series of meditations that have the rhythm of a different age, of leisured reading and a confident pursuit of educated pleasures, Brillat-Savarin discourses and writes on the pleasures of the table, which he considers a science. His French models were the stylists of the Ancien Régime: Voltaire, Rousseau, Buffon and d'Aguesseau et al. Aside from Latin, he was well versed in five modern languages, and when the occasion suited, wasn't shy of parading them: he never hesitated to borrow a word when French failed him, like the English word 'sip', until he rediscovered the then obsolete verb 'siroter'. The simplest meal satisfied Brillat-Savarin, as long as it was executed with skill and artistry, which is further elaborated in one of his famous aphorisms: Those persons who suffer from indigestion, or who become drunk, are utterly ignorant of the true principles of eating and drinking

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Antiquarian category
ref number: 11169